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The Ivory Coast international had won himself a move to Italy after a superb spell in Russia with CSKA Moscow, but 14 games later had only returned two goals - it hadn’t gone to plan.

A brief return to Moscow in the first half of the 2015-16 season saw five goals in 13 games before United took a gamble on the forward and brought him on loan.

Staring relegation in the face - United needed goals. Steve McClaren wanted a proven, top-flight striker but ended up with Doumbia, who despite his goalscoring record was overshadowed by his own unique character.

Nonetheless, his record spoke for itself and McClaren was prepared to give him a chance.

But that never happened and United’s gamble on the striker simply added to a disastrous recipe for relegation. Fast forward 12 months and Doumbia finished the 2016-17 campaign with 21 goals in 33 games while on loan with Basel.

That’s been enough to convince Sporting Lisbon to sign the striker - initially on loan with a view for a permanent move.

But why didn’t it work at Newcastle ? Was it simply he wasn’t good enough? Or a case that he wasn’t wanted, first by McClaren and then by Rafa Benitez ?

The truth is a bit of all. He arrived not fully fit. For a team that needed goals and quickly, this was a big oversight.

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They took a gamble, knowing not only did McClaren need a striker but that the fans’ anger would simply increase without one - Doumbia’s arrival did little to calm that.

But there were other elements in play. Carr had recommended him but the first half of the season at CSKA Moscow had seen any training regime go out the window. The story goes that he didn’t like to train during the week for fear of getting injured and those at CSKA let him get away with that.

With Benitez arriving and a total shake-up in training, Doumbia was never going to be allowed to get away with hiding on the training pitch. There’s no doubting his eye for goal - even in leagues such as Russia and Switzerland - his goalscoring record is outstanding.

But with a poor attitude and even poorer training regime meant that it was never going to work on Tyneside.